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In this episode I speak with Dr. Mandy Rice, a dual board–certified General Surgeon and Surgical Intensivist whose path to surgery was anything but traditional. She began her career as a pediatric ICU nurse at 22, carrying the belief that she “wasn’t smart enough to be a doctor” - until a physician challenged that narrative, and she chose to believe him.

Mandy loved medical school: the chaos, the autonomy, and the sense of purpose. Only later did she realize that the chaos she gravitated toward mirrored the chaos of her childhood, and that comfort and disorder had long been paired in her nervous system. After graduating medical school at 36, she entered residency and discovered stark differences between nursing and medicine, mentorship and hierarchy. A strong female role model in medical school contrasted sharply with a toxic training environment in residency, where lack of support - particularly from women in leadership - left her asking, “Why would people who are paid to train me treat me this way?”

We talk openly about the pain and disorientation of being fired from a training program, and the rude awakening that truth, logic, and “first, do no harm” do not always govern surgical culture. From there, Mandy navigated her first job out of training, reimagined the life she wanted, and ultimately designed a practice on her own terms, including direct-care surgery and later, community-based women’s health and hormone therapy.

Along the way we examine burnout, depersonalization, and the subtle spectrum between over-empathizing and dehumanizing patients. The middle ground, we learn, is compassion and skillful empathy. We also explore the gifts of palliative medicine and how it reshaped her ability to have difficult conversations, confront uncertainty, and meet suffering without collapsing into it.

Today, Mandy practices community surgery through a circuitous and self-authored route - proof that there are many ways to practice surgery, many ways to serve, and many ways to live a life in healthcare that is meaningful, humane, and your own.

Learn more about Dr. Mandy Rice here.

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